Our Celebrity Wall

     2008 Championship Weekend
    What Did I learn from my experience?



I was able to pick up a Press Box pass for the TSSAA State Championships Games this past weekend in Murfreesboro. My credentials was issued in the name of the hsfdatatbase.com website, a Tennessee High School Football historical website. My job for the site was to promote the site and to acquire information to be used on the site. This was my sixth championship with Press Credentials. Five was with the Lipscomb Sports Network, and I really did miss being there with the crew and the team.

General Stuff:
1. Was able to spend a lot of time with TN HS Football Guru, Murphy Fair and Chris Eakes, Goodpasture Radio/web and 104.5 the Zone HS personality.
2. Got to meet the guy who runs the Coacht website. His web name is OZ. Name seemed appropriate
3. Got to meet and spend some time with MTSU Athletic Director, Chris Masarro. Got some insight into the MTSU Athletics and Sun Belt and some other local stuff.
4. The Girl who sang the National Anthem before the Mitchell/Catholic Game was the same girl who sang the Anthem before the 2002 Lipscomb-Mitchell Championship game. She did a much better job this year. I also met her grandfather in the Mitchell VIP Room prior to the game. The Girl's Name is Donna Ware.
5. The Mitchell Band didn't show up until the start of the 2nd quarter. Once they showed up, the swayed to the beat of the drums for the rest of the quarter. They did the same half time show as they did at Lipscomb during the semifinals.
6. The Press area missed Lipscomb not being involved this year. Not a single school brought Game Day Notes or a media/or football guide to the game. After seeing Lipscomb's version of the Game day notes and Media Guide in 2006, Fulton brought in their own last year. Seems like schools could make a little better effort on the little things like this. Heard a couple of comments about the information that Lipscomb would bring. (Thanks to Peter Powell and the past Media Guide folks)
7. Got to meet officially Mark Howard who called the 3A game. Offered to give him some tidbits on Mitchell. He declined my offer. I didn't watch the game on TV so I don't know how well he and Kelly Holcomb did on the call.
8. Also Met another Coacht poster from Mitchell...Galilee. He's the former AD and now a minister in Pittsburg.
9. The current Mitchell AD and I spoke for several minutes prior to the game. I asked him about several players from last year's team. He said the talented QB is now at Texas Southern where he was redshirted this year in football and is also playing basketball. As to the rest of last years' talented team, many of them where recruited and seen by many 1A teams. However, not a single one of them could qualify academically. This had an impact on this year's team...they now are working hard on their academics and do not want to have that non-qualifying mark on them. That's a good thing.
10. Mitchell is now looking to build a football stadium on their own campus. It would be located just to the rear of the existing main building. They share a middle school field with 3 other Memphis High Schools in the area.
11. I am not sure if its a Good thing or bad, the name of the area of town where Mitchell HS is located is called...Hoodoo. (I hope this is not a derogatory comment)
12. The working press eats well during games. There was a new meal prepared for each game. So Saturday from noon til 9 PM there were 3 different meals available.
13. Many thanks to Ronnie Carter, Matthew Gillespie and the TSSAA Staff for putting on a great event. They do it so well year in and year out. Many MTSU staff are also a part of the event as well.
14. Got to meet and speak with a number of Coaches in the Press Box. Many of them were from schools that had already won State Championships. All were wearing State Championship rings. Some were wearing multiple. Let me say...their rings are about twice the size of the Lipscomb rings of 2002 and 2007 in football and the 2001 ring for baseball. Wonder if they got a better deal than our deal with our supplier?
15. The Mitchell Crowd was probably the smallest of all the schools. There was very little media coverage out of Memphis as well. I am sure the TSSAA was disappointed by the lack of attendance coming out of Memphis.
16. The Press Box was pretty full the entire two days. There was usually 3 different radio crews calling the games. One from each team and the State Network had a crew as well. The television crews took over in the Press area during the halves and between games. Many newspaper journalist along with the web guys were there. During the breaks, the newspaper guys would be working on their stories as the computer and web guys would be fighting with their Star Wars Light sabers or watching episodes of the show the Big Bang theory on their computers.

My Quick View of The Games

Friday Night
Trousdale County vs.
Jo Byrns
and
Alcoa vs. Milan
Despite these being the games of the smaller classifications, there appeared to be more people in attendance at these games. The Press Box area was filled to capacity with many press observers having to stand behind the second row. I also was standing for the entire night but was extremely thankful for the opportunity to working the event.
Trousdale County in a short version was better prepared and overall was the better of the two teams. They had been to the big show numerous times in the past. Even their old coach Clint Satterfield served as a press box coach. Jo Byrns being the local team out of Region 5 1A was thankful just to be there and was probably the sentimental favorite, but TC turned off their lights early in the second half.

What can you say? Both teams have been here before...but it was very obvious even early that Alcoa was going to take this one...and they did. However, after watching and following Alcoa since the 2003 season, they are good! but they didn't seem to be that big bad ogre of a team this year. Still a remarkable run for them since 2004.

MITCHELL PROVES JUST HAPPY TO BE THERE.....AGAIN
Last week I shared with you my thoughts about Mitchell. With all of the motivation during the off-season and during the regular season of seeing the Newspaper Headlines..."Mitchell Blows It!, referring to the 2007 Semifinal game with Lipscomb...Was their goal just to beat Lipscomb this time or would Lipscomb just be a hurdle to a State Championship. Let it now be known....David Lipscomb was their motivation. I said that this Mitchell team was not your older brothers Mitchell. Well it turned out that it was...It just showed a week later in the Championship game. However, they showed improvement. It only took Mitchell 6 years to score their first TD in a State Championship game. But the Tigers who played a tremendous game the week before against the Mustangs returned to their old tricks. Penalties hurt them on several occasions and especially late in the game when they had two illegal procedures called back to back. Their inability to kick an extra point hurt them as well as they could not convert either a 2 point or 1 point score. Mitchell Coach Cole had lost track on several plays where he ventured out into unknown with his play calling. The last poor coaching call led to an interception and TD by Catholic in the closing moments deep into the Irish territory.
By all observations in the Press Box, Mitchell was the better and talented team, but it was Catholic's fundamentals and discipline and better coaching that sealed the victory for KC.
Mitchell moves to 6A next year...Coach Cole and his 37 assistant coaches probably need to attend a few clinics...They've got some talent but they will not be playing the patsies of Region 8 anymore.

A Good Win For South Nashville
Maryville Streak Ends

The Good News is that Hillsboro can lay claim to a State Football Championship and ended Maryville's Short lived the Nations longest active winning streak at 74. South Panola Mississippi held the record with 89 until this past week when they lost in their Championship game. It was a good win for their program who up til a few years ago fielded teams in mediocrity. Ron Aydelot began to turn that program around until school administrators chased him out. Scott Blade was brought in from California and built on the foundation that had already been set. There was no question that the Burros were the darlings of the tournament. Everybody was pulling for them. Their defense kept Maryville at bay for most of the night and Eric Gordon and the Burro offense had just enough to win. Like Alcoa, there appeared chinks in Maryville's armor this year
The Bad News in the Hillsboro Win was that they also had a very small group of fans in attendance. Hillsboro was the only team that did not have a radio crew calling their game. For Years, Hillsboro was a neighborhood school. The school is over 50 years old and has a rich list of Alumni. However, it doesn't appear that the people of Green Hills identify with Hillsboro any longer. From most of the folks that I talked to now view Hillsboro as the typical Inner City Metro High School...in the likes of Stratford, Whites Creek and Maplewood. Most of the Hillsboro Alumni of the day send their kids to Private schools and have lost contact with Hillsboro today. I am happy for the team but sad for the community...they didn't share in it.

Franklin vs. Cinderella...Oakland
In my opinion, The best team went home with Silver. Turnovers can do that. On paper Franklin should have won the game...but thats why they play them. The Patriots go from 3-7 in 2007 to a State Championship in 2008 with a 14-1 record.